Abstract: The present invention relates to producing and presenting negotiable instruments and, more specifically, to printing and presenting checks, which are resistant to forgery or fraud. The negotiable instrument comprises an encrypted numeric sequence and a one-way decryption key printed in MICR font upside down across the top face of the negotiable instrument for electronic reading by a MICR reader. The encrypted numeric sequence represents name of the payee of the negotiable instrument and the payment amount.

Abstract: A financial transaction system consistent with the invention allows clients of a financial institution to use a web-based workstation to interface with a plurality of back office systems within one or more financial institutions. In an exemplary embodiment, a financial transaction system comprises a hub server, a plurality of financial institutions, at least one web server, and at least one database server. The hub server receives data in the form of a plurality of disparately formatted instructions and communicates the instructions to the financial institutions, which are connected to the hub server for receiving the data and have a plurality of differing reception formats to receive the reformatted data. Data is transmitted between the web server and at least one user via a network interface, and between the web server and the hub server. The web server stores data and at least one application in an application database.